Statement from Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) on the Inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris

The Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) congratulates President Joe Biden and California’s own Vice President Kamala Harris on this historic inauguration day. We are inspired by the diversity of our newly elected leadership and their resolve to unite our country. This transition of power marks the end of a tumultuous era that fueled racism and tough on crime rhetoric and signals the beginning of a new chapter in America.

In the pursuit of racial justice, we look forward to President Biden and Vice President Harris working to undo the enduring harms of mass incarceration on our many communities. We look forward to their enactment of policies that reverse mass incarceration, put an end to the fear-based “superpredator” myth, and make our communities more whole.

We hope their legacy as President and Vice President is the beginning of transformational change that transcends the pain and suffering our country has lived through. A change that builds upon our collective strength and humanity. One that attempts to wipe away the racism and vengeance found within our laws and replaced with truth, empathy, and equality. A change that gives girls and boys exposed to the criminal legal system hope, opportunity and restoration.

We urge President Biden to prioritize racial healing and the outright rejection of the white supremacist belief that Black people and other non-white people are worthy of less in this country. We encourage his administration to steep themselves in the truth of how Black people have been systemically relegated to the bottom rung of American society, as evidenced in our present day by who disproportionately occupies our nation’s prisons and jails. With an acknowledgement and policy-making that is influenced by truth and reconciliation, our country will be better and more free for all people.

President Biden is taking office during a once-in-a-century global pandemic. All across the country, on both sides of prison walls, people are struggling. We must remain vigilant to counteract dehumanizing narratives that seek to inflict further harm on people who are struggling, that seek incarceration as the only solution to social problems. We implore President Biden not to revert to tough-on-crime rhetoric during the pandemic and beyond, as we seek to promote healing and restoration in policy and action. We urge the incoming administration to see people in prison as fully human and worthy of redemption.

The Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) is a community of people who have lived through or been proximal to the ills of our current criminal justice system. The members of our community support one another and bring amends to those we have wronged. We know full well what our country’s decades-long commitment to mass incarceration has wrought, and we are working daily to bring more people into freedom to their families.

We congratulate President Biden and Vice President Harris on their inauguration and look forward to their shaping of an America forged further in hope, empathy, and truth.